[P2P-F] an open letter to a pro-copyright author

Fri Jan 28 15:27:53 CET 2011

interesting letter from Josef Davies-Coates, central to the values defended
by the FC Forum

See: to be published at
http://blog.p2pfoundation.net/an-open-letter-to-a-pro-copyright-author/2011/02/02;

forgot to note the source of josef's original link, but book in question is
available via http://files.uniteddiversity.com/Permaculture/

An open letter to a pro-copyright
author<http://blog.p2pfoundation.net/an-open-letter-to-a-pro-copyright-author/2011/02/02>
[image: photo of Michel Bauwens]
Michel Bauwens
2nd February 2011

>From Josef Davies Coates, who received a threatening letter regarding a book
that was posted online:

Toby Hemenway, a leading permaculture author sent me a message with very
very thinly veiled threat to sue me for including his great book Gaia’s
Garden here http://files.uniteddiversity.com/Permaculture/ (someone else has
also put it up on Scribd)

Here is the text of his message:

at http://files.uniteddiversity.com/Permaculture/ you have a pirated copy of
my book, Gaia’s Garden. My publisher, Chelsea Green, has prosecuted pirates
often. You also have copies of Paul Stamet’s books, and Paul has been known
to sue the shit out of pirates. You also have Fukuoka’s books, which my
friend Larry Korn took years to translate. Larry, a pioneer organic farmer,
badly needs the money from sales. Why would you steal from your colleagues
and teachers like this? It makes it very hard to write again if we aren’t
supported. You might want to take those books down. Free is not sustainable.

And here is my response:

Hi Toby,

Thanks for getting in touch. [image: :)]

Please forgive me in advance for this lengthly email, but this is a topic
that is of great import to me (and I’m supposed to be doing my tax
return! [image:
;)] )

Firstly, let me share with you that I’m currently in the process of
designing my first Forest Garden and I was just last night reading the 2nd
edition of your great book (of which I own a hard copy). Thanks for all your
great work!

I must say, however, that it saddens me greatly that people as enlightened
as yourself have not yet realised how backward and pointless trying to
enforce copyright is, nor accepted the fact that digital content that exists
can be, and usually is, copied many many times.

It is time for many more authors and publishers (especially the good ones!)
to acknowledge that the current, rather dated, publishing model is no longer
sustainable in the digital networked age we find ourselves in.

The commons-based peer production of free software and content is in fact
much more so; Linux dominates the server market and more and more
enlightened people use it on their desktops too. Firefox is now the most
popular web browser in Europe. Wikipedia, whose software and content has
always been free to share, is consistently in the top 10 visited websites on
the planet.

Perhaps even more excitingly, the Open Source 3D Printer, RepRap, cost 60
times less than commercial competition and Open Source Ecology are
designing, building and sharing a whole Global Village Construction Set,
(think PermaFacture of just about everything [image: :)] )
http://openfarmtech.org

The electronic copy of your book (and all the other important and timely
information nicely organised into folders on
http://files.uniteddiversity.com ) is out in the wild already, and was so
before I got my hands on it (that is how I got my hands on it). There is
absolutely nothing anyone can do about that, however many lawyers and court
cases are involved. This is a fact that publishers and authors stuck in an
old mindset and dependent on old business models ignore at their peril.

For some context, I’d really love it if you could please take 30mins to
listen to this great presentation that Lawrence Lessig of the Electronic
Frontier Foundation gave back in 2002:

http://randomfoo.net/oscon/2002/lessig/free.html

He sums it up at the beginning with a short refrain:

1. Creativity and innovation always builds on the past.
2. The past always tries to control the creativity that builds upon it.
3. Free societies enable the future by limiting this power of the past.
4. Ours is less and less a free society.

Perhaps also read these articles by Sci-Fi author Cory Doctorow…

Why free ebooks should be part of the plot for writers:

“My problem isn’t piracy, it’s obscurity, and free ebooks generate more
sales than they displace.”

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2009/aug/18/free-ebooks-cory-doctorow

The real cost of free:

“The topic I leave my family and my desk to talk to people all over the
world about is the risks to freedom arising from the failure of copyright
giants to adapt to a world where it’s impossible to prevent copying. Because
it is impossible.“

if I give away my ebooks under a Creative Commons licence that allows
non-commercial sharing, I’ll attract readers who buy hard copies. It’s
worked for me – I’ve had books on the New York Times bestseller list for
the past two years.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/blog/2010/oct/05/free-online-content-cory-doctorow

Free data sharing is here to stay

I sell my printed books by giving away electronic books

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2007/sep/18/informationeconomy

This post (and the comments) on Rob Hopkins book is also relevant:

http://transitionculture.org/2008/06/20/the-fascinating-story-of-a-viral-drum-break/

The fact is, copying isn’t theft (the owner of the original copy still has
their copy) and ALL creative work is derivative.

As for your threats to get Chelsea Green etc to sue me…

1. I have no money and no assets (OK, I admit, I do have about 300GBP in
savings and 1000GBP invested in the Ecological Land Co-op, plus a few other
bits and bobs here and there), so not sure what they’d achieve with that.

2. The small two-person co-op I work for and founded, United Diversity, is
all about helping people to discover, contribute to and replicate
intelligent responses to climate, energy and economic uncertainty. Our
purpose is to improve quality of life on Earth whilst simultaneously
reducing ecological footprint. Is this really the sort of organisation you
want to sue?

3. As part of our work, we are indirect long-term customers of your
publisher, Chelsea Green (through UK distributors, Green Books). I have
personally set-up and run market stalls at green fairs and festivals all
over the UK and have sold 100s, probably 1000s of their hard copy books,
including yours. Is this really the sort of person you’d want your
publishers to waste their time and money trying to sue from across the
Atlantic? Are there not many many far more urgent and important (let alone
more fun, interesting and inspiring) things to be getting on with and using
precious resources to do?

4. I personally take the viewpoint that whilst sharing copyrighted material
that is not released under a Creative Commons (or some other modern, open,
license) is technically illegal, that sharing it is in fact preventing a far
greater crime; widespread ignorance and the destruction of ecosystems
everywhere. Note that in the UK this argument has on numerous occasions
stood up in a court of law. See, for example:
http://uniteddiversity.com/damaging-property-to-prevent-climate-change-is-legal/

So whilst I “might want to take those books down”, then again, I might not.

Afterall, what good would it really achieve?

Like I said before, everything on http://files.uniteddiversity.com is not
only really important info very pertinent to our times, but its also already
out in the wild. It is literally impossible to remove it from the Internet
at large (which is where I got it all from in the first place).

What is really the point of removing it from my lovingly-collated pdf
collection when anyone who can get online (that’ll be nearly 1/3 of the
population on Earth then, nearly 2 billion people) and knows how to search
http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=gaias+garden+.torrent will be able to find
it and download it from peers spread all over the globe (some of which, no
doubt, live in jurisdictions with more sensible, i.e. non-existent,
copyright laws).

Of course, we’ve all got to make a livelihood. And in this overly monestised
world we find ourselves in, part of that involves creating/ producing stuff
for sale to others for money – because most of us still need money to live
(although don’t say that to my friend Mark “Moneyless Man” Boyle who has
lived for about 2 years without using money at all and is currently blogging
about others who’ve been doing it for years
http://www.justfortheloveofit.org/blog ).

And, of course, I think creators of all kinds, authors included, ought to be
fairly compensated for their efforts.

One possible solution to this conundrum in the digital age is what is known
at the Street Performer Protocol or Threshold Pledge System

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Threshold_pledge_system

http://www.logarithmic.net/pfh/rspp

http://www.schneier.com/paper-street-performer.html

Numerous online crowdfunding platforms (e.g. Kickstarter.com, IndieGoGo.com
etc.) are now available that facilitate such a system.

Flattr http://flattr.com/ , launched last August, is also a great model that
nicely fits the world we now inhabit.

How about we try an experiment?

Next time you are about to start writing a new book, or a new edition of an
existing book, you estimate the amount of work it’ll take, and the revenue
you’d expect to make, and then, using one of the many crowdfunding
platforms, simply ask people to give you however much you think is fair, up
front. In return you could agree to publish it as a public domain work,
gifting it to the global commons. That’d be awesome! You could also
simultaneously publish the book online and put flattr buttons on each and
every post/ page.

I bet that would work. You could probably make even more money from your
writing by publishing that way than you do now. Meanwhile your important
work would be legally free to share (thankfully its already free to share,
just not legally) and we’d all be a step closer to creating and living in
the the world we want (not in a world dominated by bankers, lawyers and
monocultures). Moreover, people like me who dedicate their lives to
collecting and spreading important information wouldn’t have to live their
lives in fear of law suits!

You’d also gain respect from all the cool young kids who’ve grown up with
the Internet (i.e. the very people we NEED to get doing permaculture NOW)
and who understand intuitively that artificially creating scarcity of
electronic goods is as absurd as pretending the world is infinite and the
economy can grow forever.

If you try it and it doesn’t work, I’ll happily take your book down from
http://files.uniteddiversity.com despite the fact that this would be fairly
pointless and the only thing it is likely to achieve is to very very
slightly reduce your book sales as less people (i.e. those few that find it
via my website) discover your important work.

Warmest regards and much respect,

Josef.

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